Known fondly as ‘Flash’, Robby Gordon has seen and done it all. He may not have a Sprint Cup title to his name, but what he does have is a wide array of experience that ranges from off-road racing to CARTS to NASCAR. Robby’s first ‘job’ was to rake up chaff at his father’s feed farm. An outstanding Trick water skier, Robby has been a part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series since 1991.
In 1985, a 16 year old Gordon became the champion at the SCORE Off-Road championships. He repeated the feat for five consecutive years but that was not all he did. In ‘87, he won the Baja 1000, a feat that he repeated in ‘89 as well. In 1988, he won the Mickey Thomson Stadium Series championships and retained the title in the next season.
Robby moved to GTO racing in 1990 and in his first year, he came second in the overall standings. In 1991, he was still in GTO racing and with Roush Racing, he won five IMSA GTO races in their Ford Mustang. In 1992, he stayed with Roush Racing and won the GTS class in the IMSA 24hrs of Daytona event. He also managed to win the Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am race in California.
| Team |
Robby Gordon Motorsports
|
| Born | 2 Jan 1969 |
| Nationality |
United States
|
| Nickname | Flash |
| Team History | |
|
Robby Gordon Motorsports
|
2005 - present |
In 1991, Robby got introduced to a new racing series - The NASCAR Sprint Cup. In just the two races that he drove for Junie Donleavy, he didn’t manage to get anything better than 18th place. In 1992, he got just one race and managed a 42nd place.
In 1993, after experimenting with CART in the previous years, he went into a full season with the sport. He drove for A. J. Foyt and had a disappointing season with no major accomplishments. In 1993, he had another single start season in the Sprint Cup series and that was all that there would be for that year. In ‘94, he was voted to be the most improved driver in the CART series as he got accustomed to the format. He was yet to win a race though and his single starts in the Spring Cup were just short bursts in his career that looked to be heading nowhere fast.
But things began to change, slowly though. He won his maiden CART race and then won another in the season to finish 5th in the standings. He took a break from NASCAR to concentrate on his title challenge in the CART series. The challenge fizzled out towards the end of the season. In 1996, he won the SCORE Off-Road Trophy Truck Championships with four wins. He also finished second in the ‘96 IROC series. He got three races in the Sprint Cup series - two for Felix Sabates and one for DEI. In 1997, Robby had an up and down year. He won the IROC Series but in the Sprint Cup, his long season was interrupted by a cockpit fire at the Indy500 race. Gordon had qualified 12th but the fire meant killed any chance, he may have had, to finish the race. In fact, Gordon missed a month due to the second and third degree burns suffered in that incident. Gordon did manage to finish second again at the IROC championships.
He ran for Arciero Wells Racing in 1998 in the Championship Auto Racing Series while just running in one event in the Sprint Cup Series. After a sedate 1998, he decided to run his own team in 1999 in the Championship Auto Racing Series and almost won his first Sprint Cup event when he was leading the Indy500. Unfortunately, Robby ran out of fuel on the last lap and hobbled in at fourth place.
He came to NASCAR completely in 2000 and in his own team, he participated in 17 events. He used his CART racing experience and won two top-ten finishes, both at road-course events. He also came sixth at the Indy500.
In 2001, Robby was involved in a lot of team hopping. He won his first race in the Sprint Cup series with the Richard Childress team. He got in five races with the Morgan McClure team and a substitution stint at Jimmy Smith’s Ford team got converted into a semi-permanent team. He was named as the driver for Richard Childress’ team for the 2002 season after his performances at the end of 2001, including his maiden win, warranted a contract extension.
His Sprint Cup season in 2002 was much better. He got a full season for the first time since 1991, when he first came in to the series, and the difference was there for all to see. He competed at the Coca-Cola 600 and the Indy500 series on the same weekend, two of the longest races, and came 16th and 8th respectively. He got to 20th place in the Sprint Cup standings.
He won the first qualifying race of the season in Daytona and that set the tone for his career-best season. He won both the road-course events again at Infineon and at Watkins Glen, and also had four top-five finishes as well as 10 top-tens. He finished the Indy500 at 22nd place after a gear-box failure but managed to complete the grand double (Indy500 + Coca Cola 600) weekend.
His final season with Richard Childress Racing was not only disappointing, it was hard. Just two top-5 finishes and 6 top-tens meant that he could only manage a 23rd place in the rankings. He also decided to try his hand at the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series again and in his first truck race since 1996, he finished a commendable fourth. His attempt at the Indy500 and Coca-Cola 600 was messed up due to a rain-delay on the Indy500. The driving duties were handed over to a relief driver.
In 2005, Robby decided to race under his own team’s banner and after 29 races, finished at 37th place. He finished second at Watkins Glen and only managed one other top-ten finish. He, however, did take part in another extreme form of racing, the Paris-Dakar-El Cairo Rally and became the first American ever to win a stage at the famous event. Robby won two stages and was second in the season.
In 2006, it was only the Sprint Cup series for him and he started all 36 events with minimal success. His fourth place at his favourite Watkins Glen track was his only top-five of the season as it ended in a dismal 30th place in the points’ standings. In 2007, he started all but one race and finished 26th in the points. Again, Watkins Glen was the only saving grace as he got a sixth place in the event. In 2008, Robby will be hoping to improve his standings although the man does seem to have an interest in racing in a variety of categories than just the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. He will really need to put in a lot of hard work if he wants to improve on his season and make things happen in 2008.
